How you expect this to be managed in the CMS, used within your website framework, and possibly incorporated with your build process

Here's an example inventory. I don't necessarily collect and write down all these details each project, but this reflects the conversations, notes, and meetings I've had and seen for Tridion functional analysis. You can feed any formal content audits into this as well; I've excluded the typical "identifier, audience, and URL" suggested by Content Strategists.

Content Type

Field or asset

Example /

Estimatedinstances

Author(s) and Layout

Also used in

Managed?

Priority and Frequency

Product Teaser

Image

Picture of book/
Dozens

Nivlong

Product Details

Custom CMS

High,
updated
annually

Product Teaser

Product name

“Create and Break, The Book”/

Dozens

Nivlong

Product Details

Custom CMS

High,
rarely
updated

Product Teaser

Short description

"A blog about nothing,
really"/

Dozens

Nivlong

none

Custom CMS

High,
updated
monthly

Product Teaser

Price

$0.01/

Dozens

Automatic

Product Details

From external feed

Low,
auto-
updated
daily

Product Teaser

Read more link

Dozens

Templated

From template

High,
rarely
changes

Product Details

Product name

“Create and Break, The Book”/

Dozens

Nivlong

Product Teaser

Custom CMS

High,
rarely
updated

Product Details

Image

Picture of book/

Dozens

Nivlong

Product Teaser

Custom CMS

High

Product Details

Price

$0.01/

Dozens

Automatic

Product Teaser

From external feed

Low,
auto-
updated
daily

I'm not sure if such an inventory is commonplace, but it makes implicit assumptions explicit.

We can then "refactor" fields to get a high-level approach at schema design and template logic. Each duplicate item might be a shared schema field. Each presentation variation suggests a different template.

For example:

Possible Schema Fields

Template(s)

Image

Product Full

Product Summary

Product name

Product Full

Product Summary

Short description

Product Summary

Price (from external feed)

Product Full

Product Summary

“Read more” link in Product Summary

Tridion is flexible enough to handle the details, you just need to specify what goes where.

The specific format you collect this information in doesn't matter as much as going through the process; I don't care if you do this in your head (impressive if you can), use magnets and a white board, follow Big Design Up Front, practice agile (big or little "A"), or do a POC with a follow-up "real" implementation.

Feel free to recommend other columns or analysis questions. I've seen the basic approach at converting page and content types into schemas and templates dozens of times, but I'm curious how the details differ between consultants, projects, and regions.

When the architect says, "no no no no no, Alvin, the crucial thing is..." or your technical shakes his head with, "it won't work," or the infrastructure guru gives you a wink and remarks, "well, you could do that..." it means they've processed this input and see something you've missed.